The biggest problem with Planetside 2 though is that is commits the cardinal sin of free to play games. Players that pay have a marked advantage over those who don't. Earning enough free credits for basic upgrades is agonizingly slow. If you want to play, expect to pony up some cash up front or be left in the dust.

Now to cover the other problems. Its poorly optimized. The serversThe biggest problem with Planetside 2 though is that is commits the cardinal sin of free to play games. Players that pay have a marked advantage over those who don't. Earning enough free credits for basic upgrades is agonizingly slow. If you want to play, expect to pony up some cash up front or be left in the dust.

Now to cover the other problems. Its poorly optimized. The servers aren't very good. The game looks bland on max settings. The controls aren't very tight. I've put in about 12 hours now, and every battle ends up being the exact same thing, one team corralling the other team in their base. There's no hope of a mass break out or of winning, yet the game can drag on for hours on end. The lack of any kind of tutorial is frustrating and will surely turn away casual players in droves the first time they're dropped into the middle of an active combat zone.

Players that participated in the beta are at a clear advantage with their knowledge of the maps and classes. New players are mere cannon fodder, which would be fine except for the fact that the learning curve is made steeper by the fact that those players that invested money in the game have an even bigger advantage.

Yes, the scale is impressive, but when it comes to balance and pure fun, Battlefield 3 has it beat hands down. For pure multi-player joy, CoD: Black Ops II is a much better and polished product with moments of grin inducing mayhem. And for those of you PC guys with an Xbox 360, Halo 4 multiplayer stomps PS2.

The game just feels low budget and generic. PS2 would have greatly benefitted if they had simply charged for the game up front instead of nickle and diming players.…Expand

This game is utter trash. Its a fun idea ruined by alienating new players, rewarding pay to win, and confusing and bad game controls, mechanics UI and a waste of in game time doing nothing.

The fun idea
A large actively changing map where all three factions fight for total dominance of the planet. With 3 large maps, it fills a niche I've yet to experience and thought would be reallyThis game is utter trash. Its a fun idea ruined by alienating new players, rewarding pay to win, and confusing and bad game controls, mechanics UI and a waste of in game time doing nothing.

The fun idea
A large actively changing map where all three factions fight for total dominance of the planet. With 3 large maps, it fills a niche I've yet to experience and thought would be really fun.

alienation
This game's tutorial consists of showing you how to play a generic first person shooter then throws you into combat without knowing what objectives are, and how to interact with other players. Hell you don't even get taught about vehicles. This isn't a FPS with a campaign mode, if it did It wouldn't need to tell me a thing. But it does because without any nice tut, I am lost.

pay to win
striaght forward, pay money, get an advantage. Better armor, better weapons, more upgrades. This is what we call ignoring game balance. The devs obviously just wanted a quick dollar. In the long run they may have money, but I will never play a game from these people, and certainly not this one.

CONFUSION
Lets have 3 factions: red, blue and purple. Now let us make allies show up blue in the UI and enemies in red... So red team has blue allies who are red and blue enemies who are red. Orange and green and yellow also exist..

The best part is the spawning system. Instead of having variable induvidual spawn points within a base or outpost, everyone is spawned in safe buildings within those areas. In other words Prime spawn camping material. 2 tanks and a location is ready to spawn camp. Then reinforcements come and the defending side tries to poke their heads out and fire rockets hoping they don't die and can save their base. While the offensive are simply aiming at the doors hoping to react fast enough to shoot an enemy to death. Not like it matters, you can die inside a safe spawn anyhow or life for a moment outside of it. Then often times the spawn locations are hundreds, sometimes past a thousand Kilometers from any enemy location/combat region. This means(I kid you not) about 5-60 minutes of aimless or monotonous walking and running to actually start playing the game. Good thing is there is an orbital drop spawn! Sadly though, you only get to use it every 15 minutes or so.

The UI is atrocious, nothing about it makes sense. The minimap only randomly shows you structures and enemies, its not clear at all what causes something to show up on the map. Often snipers or vehicles kill you before you hear, see or detect them on the minimap unless you are scouting ahead with a sniper rifle.

menus are a joke. These devs seem to think words are a sin. I click on one of several icons without words. You have to hover over them for a few seconds to see what they are. By this time, you forget what one icon was and are constantly searching until you memorize everything.

No clear objectives. While you see icons in the distance it isn't clear what you are supposed to do, what it does, or why you might want to go there. Good thing the game doesn't let you know you can't capture a point if it is land locked by enemy territory. Why that is a rule is beyond me. This game is nothing like real combat, its just a chaotic mess with no one telling anyone what to do, and the game certainly doesn't care to tell you what you should do.

Waste of time
Just plain and simple. When you spend more time traveling than you do fighting, you know you should be spending your time elsewhere. I was hoping to play a game, not walk it.

If you have $100 you don't care about and no goals in life, this is the game for you. It will eat your time and money and make you feel right at home. However, like most people, I cherish both my time and money and my dignity. I won't be fooled by this puke garbage. This is the result of people who wanted money and had no passion at all and who have never played an FPS in their lives.…Expand

If you are a new player, go google some tutorials and look on the website before hopping into the action.

Now, Planetside 2 is an AMAZING MMOFPS IF you have the machine to run it, if not, then I feel bad because you are missing the most wonderful modern gaming experience today. Even if playing alone, the breathtaking large-scale battles are extremely enjoyable to participate in, and theIf you are a new player, go google some tutorials and look on the website before hopping into the action.

Now, Planetside 2 is an AMAZING MMOFPS IF you have the machine to run it, if not, then I feel bad because you are missing the most wonderful modern gaming experience today. Even if playing alone, the breathtaking large-scale battles are extremely enjoyable to participate in, and the customization allows you to modify your character to your own playstyle. DOWNLOAD NOW…Expand

Planet Side 2 is a "free-to-play" but "pay-to-win" game which is so far away from entertaining me. A huge sized map with no enemies around, sucking game mechanics, bad spawn locations, buggy graphics and horrible fun factor make the game unplayable for me. You can give it a try like me; I tried it and gave it 3/10.

The gameplay itself is great, and while the empires are unbalanced, that can be easily fixed. The glaring problems with this game though is that there are too many hackers and the communities are full of **** On my server, the TR is the only one with a nice community, and I'm sure it varies from server to server, but the point is that most of the time the communities are full of ragingThe gameplay itself is great, and while the empires are unbalanced, that can be easily fixed. The glaring problems with this game though is that there are too many hackers and the communities are full of **** On my server, the TR is the only one with a nice community, and I'm sure it varies from server to server, but the point is that most of the time the communities are full of raging jack-asses, and that's a serious problem because that will cause two sides to gang up against this one particular side because it's full of nice people, again, like on my server. I guess it's because the gaming community, especially for pvp games, has degenerated so much between planetside 1 and 2, because I remember in planetside 1 people had a sense of fairplay and if your outfit/ community acted like jackasses, you would get your ass stomped by everyone else, heck, even your own empire would betray you if you acted like a jackass. But that sense of fairplay and community is gone in this game, just gone, and that's what made planetside 2 fun, was that everyone played fair and kept everyone else in line. That community is gone, and instead in this game you have fanboys of their respective leaders (Toby (who has the worst fanboys), seananners, and that other british guy who's name I can't remember), griefers, hackers, People with severe cases of entitlement or unwarranted self importance, etc. Planetside 2's community problem is unfixable to be honest, and I don't play this game anymore because of that problem. I will give this game a 5 because this gameplay is good, but the community is beyond redemption…Expand

Could be so good but it just isn't.
You as a new player will have little fun in this game unless you wanna spend a decent amount of money. After playing a good 20 hours i havent even got 1/10th of the points needed for a decent upgrade. The grind you would need to do as a new player is just ridiculous, and the starting weapons is utter useless, same goes for the tank and plane weapons,Could be so good but it just isn't.
You as a new player will have little fun in this game unless you wanna spend a decent amount of money. After playing a good 20 hours i havent even got 1/10th of the points needed for a decent upgrade. The grind you would need to do as a new player is just ridiculous, and the starting weapons is utter useless, same goes for the tank and plane weapons, wich means not only will you have the disadvantage of not knowing the game, but you will also have your skill removed due to ridicilous spread and weapon recoil, lesser health lower wpn dmg ect. ect. As a guy who normal do average in shooters i ended with a K/D ratio less than 0.3. Nuff said.…Expand

I have written a different review about a year ago but since then the game got faster, better, and much more balanced.
Planetside 2 is now the dream of OC gaming at it's finest hundreds of players on lag free servers, inside a real war run all by people, not AI.
It. Also runs much better, and I am now able to Max the game on my mid range rig (core i5 650@4.5ghz, MSI gtx 760@1280mhz,I have written a different review about a year ago but since then the game got faster, better, and much more balanced.
Planetside 2 is now the dream of OC gaming at it's finest hundreds of players on lag free servers, inside a real war run all by people, not AI.
It. Also runs much better, and I am now able to Max the game on my mid range rig (core i5 650@4.5ghz, MSI gtx 760@1280mhz, 6750mem and 8gb 1333mhz RAM).
It only has 1 downside, and that is you need at least 4gb of RAM.
If you have a fair PC you will be able to enjoy planetside at it's full potential.
Also, I haven't paid a dollar and I never felt underpowered- it's not pay to win.
I highly recommend.…Expand

Don't get me wrong, this game is great but does have a few downfalls. I love the maps being huge but sometimes gets really boring not seeing a enemy for ages and spending the majority of time with team mates. To actually get any decent weapons in this game you have to pay which is sometimes really annoying when your a low level and the enemy's are high levels spending money and havingDon't get me wrong, this game is great but does have a few downfalls. I love the maps being huge but sometimes gets really boring not seeing a enemy for ages and spending the majority of time with team mates. To actually get any decent weapons in this game you have to pay which is sometimes really annoying when your a low level and the enemy's are high levels spending money and having really good weapons. Playing with friends is possible but finding them (even when their in your squad) is quite difficult when your one of those guys that dies allot.

The good points! This game is one of the most EPICist games i have ever played. Once your whole faction is together on the map you feel unstoppable and feels like your taking part in star wars. Hundreds of tanks, Jets & Carriers overhead and just troops running along side your tanks is a great experience.…Expand

Three distinct factions, fighting on three huge continents for the supremacy on the planet. Many classes to choose from with a detailed and durable character growth system.

There is no need to spend money to be competitive.
Deep, immense and fast-paced: PlanetSide 2 is a MMOFPS that played in a group offers hours of pure fun.
Unfortunately it still lacks of a solid outfit systemThree distinct factions, fighting on three huge continents for the supremacy on the planet. Many classes to choose from with a detailed and durable character growth system.

There is no need to spend money to be competitive.

Deep, immense and fast-paced: PlanetSide 2 is a MMOFPS that played in a group offers hours of pure fun.

Unfortunately it still lacks of a solid outfit system and it's bad optimized for most personal computers.…Expand

What a joke at the dumb reviewers saying this game is way better than any battlefield or any other fps game out there.. and giving this game a 10 out of 10. If you think a broken, bland, pointless, game like planetside 2 is better than any other mutliplayer shooter out there then you have either never played 1 single damn game besides this, are 10 years old, or you have the worst taste inWhat a joke at the dumb reviewers saying this game is way better than any battlefield or any other fps game out there.. and giving this game a 10 out of 10. If you think a broken, bland, pointless, game like planetside 2 is better than any other mutliplayer shooter out there then you have either never played 1 single damn game besides this, are 10 years old, or you have the worst taste in gaming that I have ever seen. About the game, all i can really say is, devs dont have the common sense to help out newbies so people get turned away from the game so less player base, and HOW can anyone say this is a better game than battlefield when all you do in this game is capture 1 base at a time with unbalanced classes and vehicles and you do nothing else.... at least in battlefield you can play many different game types, play with friends, better control of vehicles, more rewarding system, better scaling, just about everything is better in Battlefield besides the map is bigger in PS2.... BOOHOO…Expand

The game is really fun but, but it is far from perfect.. It needs more ways to get into combat faster. I do understand that you can spawn vehicles, and being on big maps is part of the fun, seriously. The size isn't the problem. There also should be a variety of gametypes instead of going around and capturing bases. The level design is pretty good. The game is more fun IMO if you are onThe game is really fun but, but it is far from perfect.. It needs more ways to get into combat faster. I do understand that you can spawn vehicles, and being on big maps is part of the fun, seriously. The size isn't the problem. There also should be a variety of gametypes instead of going around and capturing bases. The level design is pretty good. The game is more fun IMO if you are on the losing side. You see enemies more frequent and it gets pretty fast paced when you charge out of your base and attack the enemy.

The shooting mechanics are excellent in PlanetSide 2. I wanted to give it an 8.5)

If I were to rate this on shotting mechanics, it would have a 9/10…Expand

Once you get into this game it if a fantastic amount of fun. The battles are on such a massive scale. Graphics are not as good as some other shoot em up platforms but am sure its done like that to be able to run massive servers.

(Forewarning; I apologize for the inevitable slaughter of my format by Metacritic, huge walls of text are the only option :c) The PROS:

+The game has the largest battles to be found in any game, ever. Barring very special cases in certain strategy games (Namely, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance and Total War) you will never see larger battles. It simply dwarves all contemporary games(Forewarning; I apologize for the inevitable slaughter of my format by Metacritic, huge walls of text are the only option :c) The PROS:

+The game has the largest battles to be found in any game, ever. Barring very special cases in certain strategy games (Namely, Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance and Total War) you will never see larger battles. It simply dwarves all contemporary games in sheer scale.

+Many of the mechanics from the original game (PlanetSide) have been completely revamped and/or replaced. It is no longer a chore to play. In fact, the gameplay is VASTLY improved, featuring full hitboxes, well-defined class roles and strategic thought simply not present before. Quite simply, its a blast

+The futuristic setting is very interesting visually and audibly. The lighting, draw distances, shadows and SFX are stunning. I especially enjoy when you fight at night, as it is one of the only modern games where the dark of night is... dark. I have a feeling you will enjoy looking at the immense star and moonscapes in awe, they're spectacular.

+ The game is Free to Play! In case you didn't know, "F2P" means "Free to Play"; Huzzuah! + There are three teams per server, as opposed to the regular two-sided fights that are the norm. This introduces an interesting dynamic with three-sided battles. Extremely fun.

+ While the factions share several things in common, notably certain vehicles and the classes, they each have a unique set of strengths and weaknesses that give you incentive to play as all three. While the lore is not particularly strong (This is an MMO after all), I suspect you will choose your first faction based on their backstory. I prefer the Vanu, being a transhumanist scum in real life.

+As goes naturally with the large player counts, the maps are enormous; expect to travel in various gunships and APC's more than on foot when trying to get from place-to-place.

The CONS:

- My primary concern with the game is the system requirements; you will require a very powerful rig to run the game at a level of 30 FPS or higher. Lower-end computers or older ones will have some problems, most notably in the larger battles. I had no problems with this, as I very recently constructed my own computer with high-end parts, but for the majority of people performance will be a factor.

- There are quite a few bugs and glitches int he game as-is; friendly tanks running you over push you into geometry, muzzle flash sometimes continues even when not firing,You spawn from a "slanted" perspective... You know, pretty typical stuff.

- Game-enders; Every now and then, you will have a CATASTROPHIC crash that may require you to disable/reset your router and modem, or at least restart your computer. These are very infrequent (I've had it happen once) but keep this in mind.

-There are some balancing issues, most relating to the MAX quasi-class/mech and to the power of air vehicles/Anti-Air weaponry.

- The "Certification" system in the game allows you to purchase weapons and other gear/perks with in-game experience. You "buy" them with things called "Certs" (Short for certifications) which are earned in gameplay for doing essentially everything. The number of Certs you need to buy some things (Notably weapons) is huge, and you earn them very slowly. I place huge emphasis on "slowly" . You can, optionally, circumvent this problem by directly buying things with real money through microtransactions, or buying a $15/month subscription (Which isn't mandatory in any way!) to increase the rate at which you earn things.

- I mentioned the lighting effects, particle effects and such earlier? Those are great, but the actual TEXTURES in the game are not particularly good, on-par with the industry standard five years ago. This is for the sake of game performance, a necessary evil, but it is still a definite weakness.

-Tutorials are very weak, you are simply thrust into the game for lack of a better term. I suggest watching youtube videos to get a grasp of the game before you play

CONCLUSION:

PlanetSide 2 is FILLED with great times to be had if you have a decent computer, all for the low, low price of $0. Keep in mind the game is somewhat hindered graphically and in terms of performance by the large player counts and huge maps, but simultaneously remember the good vastly outweighs the bad!

It gets an 8/10 - The game is superb with several minor problems and one somewhat big one. I expect the developers will support the game for years to come, so I will likely amend my score to 9/10 in the future as the performance is boosted and the bigs patched. You have nothing to lose by downloading it, just do it!…Expand

Free-to-play and MMOs are not my thing. I'm not able to invest much time in the game to get all the fancy stuff. And I do not want to spend money on the fancy stuff either. The game is not for casual gamers who want to shoot stuff for an hour or two and who do not like to get ripped apart by players who can invest more time. You always depend on finding an organised group so you have atFree-to-play and MMOs are not my thing. I'm not able to invest much time in the game to get all the fancy stuff. And I do not want to spend money on the fancy stuff either. The game is not for casual gamers who want to shoot stuff for an hour or two and who do not like to get ripped apart by players who can invest more time. You always depend on finding an organised group so you have at least some effect on the battle. The massive scale of the battle makes you feel insignificant unless your team does everything right. Finding such a team is hard and unexperienced/casual players are more likely to get kicked from a well organised squad. And there is no real objective - no goal to achieve for casual gamers other than to fight for sectors and resources. Capturing an entire continent takes days. So this game is not for me. And I hope, the Battlefield series will continue to offer me a better home.…Expand

You play for 4 hours to capture or defend a base, next day its lost again. yes the battles are epic but it all seems so pointless. Air dominates, spawn camping gets frustrating. pay 2 win scheme. it was fun for a week but i'll be moving on to games with actual progress

Yeah this game is pretty overhyped. It was a poor choice to take on such extreme graphics for a F2P game. It looks great, but runs like trash. The scaling in reduction of graphical settings is subpar at best. This leaves anyone with a mid to entry level gaming rig excluded from enjoying this game. The gameplay is a whole different story. The map is a **** giving you so much information youYeah this game is pretty overhyped. It was a poor choice to take on such extreme graphics for a F2P game. It looks great, but runs like trash. The scaling in reduction of graphical settings is subpar at best. This leaves anyone with a mid to entry level gaming rig excluded from enjoying this game. The gameplay is a whole different story. The map is a **** giving you so much information you cant process what is going on. There is no clear objective as to where you should be headed or going unless you are in a squad and receiving orders from another player. The scale of the game is questionable at best. The game draws heavily from the Battlefield series, but fails to deliver a controled mechanism for preventing an all out **** to occur. I have found myself kill spawned over and over and over. I have found myself spawning in a group of friendlies only to be pinned down by superior enemy forces. There really is no protection or passive base defenses. Aside from this the battles can last for hours, or dare I say days? This kind of scaling isnt fun for the average gamers, if you cant sit down and accomplish something significant in a 30-60 minute period, than the game development has been designed to accomodate a niche group of hardcore players. All in all Planetside 2 really has some potential for further development. The scale of the game and the sheer rigorous pacing of the game will turn many players off.…Expand

If you have a good gaming PC that can handle the rendering of hundreds of players and like shooters like Battlefield 3 you owe yourself to play this game. I am completely 100% addicted to it and thing this game is a one of a kind experience.

Countless bugs, almost no friend/foe ID unless you mouse over for 5 seconds, so by that time, if it was a foe, you are dead. Also, you die in 3 hits unless your armor is built up. Another free to play, free to die, pay to win, pay to survive game. Don't waste your time on this one.

My first review was unfair because my CPU wasn't powerful enough, and the game wasn't optimized for AMD CPUs when I tried to play. They've had a lot of patches since then, and I've heard it has been optimized for AMD, and it's not single core bound. I don't have a desire to play at this time, but I'll rate it highly because my friends who play enjoy it.

Fun to play, missing prone / vault though and weapons could be cheaper for ingame currency, other than that like i said before: Planetside 2 offers alot of EPIC fun for a free game, dont hesitate to try it, its free!

Casting aside forgiveable minor bugs and unforgiveable CTD-problems, PS2 is fun for some time. The game ultimately fails due to what makes it special: large scale warfare lacks focus. Don´t expect all-out adrenaline experience such as Tribes:Ascend or Battlefield series offer. If some system which attracts all the three factions to compete for the same battlefied objectives at theCasting aside forgiveable minor bugs and unforgiveable CTD-problems, PS2 is fun for some time. The game ultimately fails due to what makes it special: large scale warfare lacks focus. Don´t expect all-out adrenaline experience such as Tribes:Ascend or Battlefield series offer. If some system which attracts all the three factions to compete for the same battlefied objectives at the same time was applied, the atmosphere would rise greatly. Also, the BOs (buildings, locations etc) lack imagination. They should have taken Halo series as model & inspiration, not Supreme Commander. My fav multiplayer scifi-shooter is BF2142. It has less of everything, but its heart is bigger.…Expand

The game is massive and definitely has a bright future in the FPS gamers eyes but this massive game comes at a cost. Most PC's have trouble running it. Mine alone is above average computer and I cannot even run it properly. As much as I wish I could give this game a 10, I cannot. Not while so many people who have above average computers cannot experience this massive and beautiful game.

Planetside 2 is a success from multiple standpoints. It manages to create an incredible sense of scale, and keep that scale well maintained (as well as fairly light on lag). It is a fair successor to the original Planetside, but retains little of its mechanics. Gameplay, unless operating with an outfit can by trying and tedious at best. There are plenty of extremely skilled players whoPlanetside 2 is a success from multiple standpoints. It manages to create an incredible sense of scale, and keep that scale well maintained (as well as fairly light on lag). It is a fair successor to the original Planetside, but retains little of its mechanics. Gameplay, unless operating with an outfit can by trying and tedious at best. There are plenty of extremely skilled players who will trounce your ass good, as well. Continent locking mechanics, and metagame seem to be on the backburner for SOE, who seem to be more concerned with setting up 'battle lanes' (read; Planetside's Lattice System Copy-Paste) to create a 'flow' of combat, to prevent back-capping (read; capturing undefended territories away from the main fight.) This means that the overall 'quality' of the game, and the feeling of success when capturing territory, or trouncing your foes is short lived at best.

Between the glitches, the fair amount of hackers, the pricey items, and the wayward dev focus, I can't give this game any more than 6.8/10 at the moment.…Expand

I am not a fan of MMOs or FPSs, but this combines the two to create something awesome, although I would appreciate it if I didn't have to keep entering my username and password. Just do a login through Steam.

This game is a combination of a MMO, a FPS and a RTS. You can either play solo or in groups, and the core objective of the game is to capture continents for your faction. Very addictive game, interesting mechanics, lots of vehicles and modifications available. Do recommend.

An MMO-shooter, which is good concept, but needs to be thought out more. Imagine playing WoW, but instead of starting at lvl 1 and going through questing zones and learning your class, you start at lvl 20, and are dropped into BattleGrounds and told "figure it out" while all the veterans farm you for points. And this is the beginning, middle, and end of the game. I played this game forAn MMO-shooter, which is good concept, but needs to be thought out more. Imagine playing WoW, but instead of starting at lvl 1 and going through questing zones and learning your class, you start at lvl 20, and are dropped into BattleGrounds and told "figure it out" while all the veterans farm you for points. And this is the beginning, middle, and end of the game. I played this game for about 4-5 hours, disliking it the whole time, but I assumed that I just hadn't found the delicious chocolate center inside this harsh, unwelcoming game. But once I realized that there was no such center, I stopped playing. So try it, it's free, but you better play with friends on skype/vent who know what's going on, or you'll be lost, confused, and free food for all the other people on skype/vent.…Expand

I can give everyone the straight dope here in a few in a brief summary. I played continuously for a couple weeks or so and got up to about lvl 20 so I know the game mechanics well. I was absolutely blown away with P2 initially. It was almost everything I ever wanted in an FPS and seemed to fulfill all the promise of PC gaming. It ran fine(mostly), looked great and had all the largeI can give everyone the straight dope here in a few in a brief summary. I played continuously for a couple weeks or so and got up to about lvl 20 so I know the game mechanics well. I was absolutely blown away with P2 initially. It was almost everything I ever wanted in an FPS and seemed to fulfill all the promise of PC gaming. It ran fine(mostly), looked great and had all the large scale conflict and tactics a hardcore ,high-skill ceiling, pc game should. I will tell you what killed it. I knew these two things would eventually be a problem from the outset and they were. Number one: The conflict is meaningless as there is NOTHING at stake for gaining/losing your territory. Sure the fight is fun but for how long when there's absolutely no payoff. A war of this scale without any reward in the offing makes no sense and kills any long term enjoyment. Problem 2: P2 caters to the newer gen Ritalin children who can't comprehend the value of earning a kill in-game and so anybody can get the drop on you at anytime and 1 automatic burst later your dead. You'll spend most of your time in this game dying and trying to get back into the fight. The whole point of the game feels like it revolves around dying. It's absolutely horrendous and ridiculous. By having two hit-points you eliminate 75% of any skill or tactics the conflicts here have. If you had time in a firefight to utilize terrain and tactics the conflicts would be fierce and meaningful as they are in other games that allow for some damage. Instead you just zerg around the map dying and spawning until you outzerg the zergers. Even the heavy's vaporize under minimal fire. I just don't get it. Twice the hitpoints, and it soon becomes apparent who is the more skillful opponent and who deserves to control the battlefield. Why devs don't get this is beyond me and I don't feel like returning to this game even though they'll probably address my first issue. This fantastic game is utterly ruined because you can't sustain any damage. Just like all the other mainstream shooters Ritalin kids thrive on. I don't know who to blame so I jokingly pick on the Ritalin kids. Ridiculous, I'm done.…Expand

At first I was really blown away by the game, then things started to get really boring, seeing as how SOE makes it extremely difficult to get different gear without paying for it. So customization is out the window. There's nothing really much to the game that's different from any other fps, other than the fact that you have very big maps, but even Arma easily covers that area. Then, IAt first I was really blown away by the game, then things started to get really boring, seeing as how SOE makes it extremely difficult to get different gear without paying for it. So customization is out the window. There's nothing really much to the game that's different from any other fps, other than the fact that you have very big maps, but even Arma easily covers that area. Then, I step back even further from the battles, and I see that basically, there isn't much chance of a faction winning an entire map, so it's just an endless war. After playing for approximately 6 hours straight, I'm not really impressed. I'm not shelling out money to enjoy myself.…Expand

Probably my favorite game of all time. Alot of people say it's pay-to-win but it's really not, the base weapons are better than the ones you can buy. The weapons you can buy though do cost quite a bit I won't lie but like I said the base weapon is usually the best out of them all. Certs can be slow to make to but if you want quick certs I just repair turrets after a battle, most of theProbably my favorite game of all time. Alot of people say it's pay-to-win but it's really not, the base weapons are better than the ones you can buy. The weapons you can buy though do cost quite a bit I won't lie but like I said the base weapon is usually the best out of them all. Certs can be slow to make to but if you want quick certs I just repair turrets after a battle, most of the time you will be the only one repair (because everyone scatters to the next area) and it can get boring and long but you'll make a good amount of XP and certs.
Lastly, you can play this game with a lower end PC but do note that you will have to play on the lowest settings (like me) even on the lowest settings I tend to crash every three or four hours. But that doesn't bother me at all. So yeah, I suggest a higher end PC to have the best experience.…Expand

It's hard to describe how I feel about this game. It goes from hot to cold so quickly, and infantry combat feels so secondary to tanks and aircraft. But when you're in a big battle, it's the most fun and exciting thing every conceived. It's like you're in a Star Wars movie. So much is happening all around you, it's just so intense. I can't say it's for everyone, but it's free, andIt's hard to describe how I feel about this game. It goes from hot to cold so quickly, and infantry combat feels so secondary to tanks and aircraft. But when you're in a big battle, it's the most fun and exciting thing every conceived. It's like you're in a Star Wars movie. So much is happening all around you, it's just so intense. I can't say it's for everyone, but it's free, and worth the time to try it and see for yourself.…Expand

I give this game a 3 out of 10 only because they created a f2p MMOFPS on a massive scale...but that's it. The gameplay feels cheap, the controls feel clunky and the combat is not as exciting as they make it out to be. I agree with a lot of the other reviewers here, most people are being blown away by the sheer size of the game and the fact its f2p. Well, justPAY TO WIN...YOU ARE WARNED

I give this game a 3 out of 10 only because they created a f2p MMOFPS on a massive scale...but that's it. The gameplay feels cheap, the controls feel clunky and the combat is not as exciting as they make it out to be. I agree with a lot of the other reviewers here, most people are being blown away by the sheer size of the game and the fact its f2p. Well, just because a big budget game and f2p, does not make it a 10 out 10 blockbuster game. This game has pay2win all over it. It takes a hell of a long time to earn anything in the game and the teams are horribly unbalanced... every time i log in, my team is pushed back to furthest corner on the map and we have no chance of pushing back. It seems as if most gamer's jump ship to the winning faction and call it a day. For the last two weeks, we have been stuck in the same corner trying to fight our way out and we are not making any progress. If your looking for that next mmo/fps hybrid, look past this one. Great idea, poorly executed. Hey SOE, maybe you should of created some sort of cap or auto balance for the teams. The fact that anybody can join the wining and steam roll the entire map is BS. And why on earth would you make it so hard to actually earn better weapons?? It does not sucker people into buying your premium crap, it turns people away from the game. Look at what GW2 did right and learn from them. I suspect this community if going to die real quick. Especially with the release of Firefall coming soon. You guys need to get over the fact that you can create huge worlds, you need to work on balancing, gameplay mechanics, combat, and..well...just about everything else in the game. Huge worlds do not cut it anymore. The game is boring... FAIL…Expand

A great game, great concept and excellent setting that suffers from a number of baffling design decisions and poor 'knee jerk' balancing. The Microtransaction model also loses another point for me as done right it's great, but feels like SoE are starting to 'milk' it a bit.

They are getting better at it, and the gameplay in an organised outfit (BRTD in my case) is incredible (this isA great game, great concept and excellent setting that suffers from a number of baffling design decisions and poor 'knee jerk' balancing. The Microtransaction model also loses another point for me as done right it's great, but feels like SoE are starting to 'milk' it a bit.

They are getting better at it, and the gameplay in an organised outfit (BRTD in my case) is incredible (this is not a CoD/BF4 style log-on play solo game). Overall it could be better, but is still currently head & shoulders above the rest of it's modern peers.…Expand

Played it a bit when it first came out, but got bored with it fairly quickly. Took a long time to get to any real combat. Once you finaly got there it all just didn't feel very fun or exciting.

Then just for the heck of it i tried it again a few weeks ago. This is a decision i do not regret.. The game has improved massively since i last played it. The gameplay is fun and challenging.Played it a bit when it first came out, but got bored with it fairly quickly. Took a long time to get to any real combat. Once you finaly got there it all just didn't feel very fun or exciting.

Then just for the heck of it i tried it again a few weeks ago. This is a decision i do not regret.. The game has improved massively since i last played it. The gameplay is fun and challenging.
This game is what Battlefield was. A TEAM PLAYER game. You don't win anything by playing alone. You win by working as a team. That's where the game shines most. The teamwork.. You can have amazing fun and epic battles when battles are led by commanders that know their tactics. And squads work together.
If you expect to play this by yourself as you would Battlefield 3. You might aswell head back to that, cause you won't find this fun.

It takes time to get better gear in this game. You can't play for a couple of days and expect to have unlocked 7 new guns and 15 new attachments. You earn Certs as you play the game and with these you can buy new weapons, attachments, vehicle upgrades and upgrades for your Individual classes.
If you want the better gear, you gotta play longer to get the Certs to buy it. It is not a pay to win game. You can do just fine playing without paying. Though if you are impatient, you will find that it helps, buying a premium account. You really don't need to though. You will find that just buying a grip for you gun for 100 certs/5 good hours of playtime, will show huge improvements. Though it will take a long time to get certs enough for the best gear.…Expand

Planetside 2 falls short of Planetside 1 in about every category, but it's still a lot of fun and the best recent shooter out there. Be advised it's poorly optimized at the moment with some netcode issues, but hopefully when those are ironed out it will be fun for everyone.

Their customer service team is responsive and fast. Haven't run into any obvious hackers yet.

This is a great concept. poorly implemented. Pay to win feel but that's typical of F2P shooters. Biggest complaint is that battles are too large. Great idea in large scale battles, but cutting the maps into a 4th of their size would make combat more consistent. Instead you get a long period of firefights followed by monotonous base capturing without resistance because the other team is offThis is a great concept. poorly implemented. Pay to win feel but that's typical of F2P shooters. Biggest complaint is that battles are too large. Great idea in large scale battles, but cutting the maps into a 4th of their size would make combat more consistent. Instead you get a long period of firefights followed by monotonous base capturing without resistance because the other team is off doing something else. Capturing bases also feels way too long sometimes, my whole team stood at an enemy free base to capture it. Took 15mins of us standing around. The shooter mechanics are cool, but some of the classes feel strange. Only the heavy assault and medic feels right, all the others feel underpowered and the Max is way too beefy. Definitely worth a try, and I love how ambitious the developers were. Still, Blacklight and even Tribes:Ascend are better, albeit less original, F2P FPS games.…Expand

Incredibly addictive. Just as I thought I'd finally "grown up" and stopped playing PC games for good, Planetside 2 comes out and I find myself completely immersed in the gameplay. This game takes advantage of my decent PC hardware, so I am able to max out all settings and WOW the game really does look incredibly beautiful. At night, playing as Vanu, I see my empire mates' tank shells flyIncredibly addictive. Just as I thought I'd finally "grown up" and stopped playing PC games for good, Planetside 2 comes out and I find myself completely immersed in the gameplay. This game takes advantage of my decent PC hardware, so I am able to max out all settings and WOW the game really does look incredibly beautiful. At night, playing as Vanu, I see my empire mates' tank shells fly and they cast a blinding bright light that itself casts shadows as it wheezes by. I do have a deep concern about this game, though, which is why I've lowered my score from 10 to 8. It's addictive today, it'll be addictive tomorrow, .. but unlike some other sci-fi MMOs like, say, EVE Online, Planetside 2 really has absolutely no depth. There's no point in the chaotic fighting, except to just fight. After seeing my empire capture entire continents now four or five times since the game's launch (this review comes just a week or to after launch) I'm certain I'm going to get bored by the fact that there really is no point. Capturing a continent gets you bonus spending "money" for vehicles and aircraft, but there's no other real point. There's certainly no real story; I've come across a couple hack story ideas (some from Sony) on forums and blogs but there really is no story within the game, you're just out there fighting and respawning, ad nauseum.

There's also no real point in which empire you choose other than favorite music and colors. They're all pretty much the same. Oh, there are variations in vehicle speeds and power, but Sony played it very safe here on the balancing act and trying to keep all factions equal.

The shooter side of the game is solid, if sometimes a little bit plastic. Usually not, but sometimes I feel like I'm using a toy gun from Wal-mart. Sometimes the sound is weak and damage effect is light. The sniper rifle and the shotgun, for example, have no oomph, I suppose the sound engineers must not have very good speakers because I have studio monitors and these feel thin.

Overall, this is a fun game and being free it's definitely worth a shot. I would compare it best to Tribes: Ascend but on a much, much larger map scale in a persistent universe of equally absent meaning.…Expand

Game could be called Graveyard of Hopes II. Planetside 2 is a paragon of bad design. Devs just ignore most issues, even game breaking, completely. ZOE MAX insane damage? It took them 6 months to fix it, Striker overpowered, with noclip roctets? Well, let's leave it for months. Awful geodata, you could struck in a mound but still climb like in skyrim on near 90 degree mountains. Text isGame could be called Graveyard of Hopes II. Planetside 2 is a paragon of bad design. Devs just ignore most issues, even game breaking, completely. ZOE MAX insane damage? It took them 6 months to fix it, Striker overpowered, with noclip roctets? Well, let's leave it for months. Awful geodata, you could struck in a mound but still climb like in skyrim on near 90 degree mountains. Text is unreadable and too small? Just ignore it. But devs have a lot of time for selling and shoving decals and various honks and festive decorations for the game. It's a milking machine, with a bunch of devoted players who constantly buy new decals and membership. Game with insanely huge potential ruined by lazy design and inability to balance things out.…Expand

Great potential, that unfortunately falls flat. The graphics aren't amazing, but that's not surprising considering the scale they were going for. The biggest problem I have with this game is how much the game mechanics encouraging Team Killing. Seeing your supposed allies killing Sunderers (Mobile Spawn Points) so they can deploy one of their own in it's place in order to collect the expGreat potential, that unfortunately falls flat. The graphics aren't amazing, but that's not surprising considering the scale they were going for. The biggest problem I have with this game is how much the game mechanics encouraging Team Killing. Seeing your supposed allies killing Sunderers (Mobile Spawn Points) so they can deploy one of their own in it's place in order to collect the exp just ruins any enjoyment I had in the game.…Expand

After experiencing more than 3 hours of Planet Side I have to take back my previous review. Starting out you are going to get owned. You have to climb a huge wall just to become good enough where you have a good chance of killing someone without dying 5 times. You will rage (maybe break a keyboard like I did) but once you get passed this "introduction period" you will enjoy yourself likeAfter experiencing more than 3 hours of Planet Side I have to take back my previous review. Starting out you are going to get owned. You have to climb a huge wall just to become good enough where you have a good chance of killing someone without dying 5 times. You will rage (maybe break a keyboard like I did) but once you get passed this "introduction period" you will enjoy yourself like no other game has ever provided. Fighting along side 20-100 other people in 1-5 hour attacks on a single base is amazing and by playing this I now realize how much **** other fps are. The only thing that can come close is BF3. Planet Side 2 is just bigger, better, and more compared to other games. If you really want to feel like you're in a war this game will satisfy and more. Just be willing to sacrifice a keyboard or 2 for that fun (Luckily I had a spare).…Expand

The first few hours you play this game, you'll most likely be very frustrated. Once you figure out where things are, and how the world works. You'll have a great time, and It's unbelievable how well this game handles mass scale battles (300+ people in a small area).

Getting is a squad/platoon of people who actually communicates, and work together, can make for some insanely fun online times.

Great game, played since beta. It's one major flaw is that's it's near impossible to unlock anything, even for a free game. You usually start with simple one point certifications, but then the price skyrockets to 100's for a simple bonus. In fact, there is not a single weapon in the game for under 100 certifications.

I am not quite sure what everyone is talking about with in game bugs as I have not experienced any game breaking ones over the course of my play time thus far, at least nothing worth giving this game a 0.... The only inexcusable bug would be the total lack of optimization for AMD based processors... I am lucky enough to have had a Intel/Nvidia based system so it runs beautifully for me. II am not quite sure what everyone is talking about with in game bugs as I have not experienced any game breaking ones over the course of my play time thus far, at least nothing worth giving this game a 0.... The only inexcusable bug would be the total lack of optimization for AMD based processors... I am lucky enough to have had a Intel/Nvidia based system so it runs beautifully for me. I did not play Planetside 1 so I have nothing to base this game on but as it stands I have never played a FPS MMO that is this engaging. I can almost RP in this game, patrolling, guarding, attacking, infiltrating, outposts and small bases on my own. And the sheer volume of players in the large skirmishes on the map is mind boggling. If you have never played the first one and have an Intel Based System give it a shot! Its like no other FPS you have played.. If you are familiar with the first Planetside game you might be a tad disappointed in this one. And since it is free what is there to lose? Bandwidth? Try it out either way your not losing anything.... AMD users wait for a patch.…Expand

I am an original Tech Tester from wave 1. I have seen a LOT of improvements, overall the game is moving in the right direction all be it very slowly. I can't help but feel this is still in Beta, there's a LOT of major features that should have launched with the game. As of right now Planetside 2 is simply an enjoyable FPS and the promised massive emersive metagame is non existant. Some ofI am an original Tech Tester from wave 1. I have seen a LOT of improvements, overall the game is moving in the right direction all be it very slowly. I can't help but feel this is still in Beta, there's a LOT of major features that should have launched with the game. As of right now Planetside 2 is simply an enjoyable FPS and the promised massive emersive metagame is non existant. Some of my biggest gripes are uncapturable warpgates, bases that can be back capped by 1 or 2 people, the ability for anyone to pilot any vehicle at any time (No vehicle certs are required), The total lack of an actual front line, Cutting off enemy the enemy gives no real benefits. No inventory system, no way of picking up enemy equipment off of dead soliders, no way of hacking or capping enemy vehicles. So the entire "Immersive metagame" is missing. It's not all bad, the scale of the battles are incredible, but again, with no metagame it still feels like battlefield. You could spend a solid 1-2 hours fighting over a territory and once capped you move on pushing deeper into enemy territory... 20 minutes later you open your map only to find that 2 or 3 enemy troops were able to ghost cap all that hard work you've done because nobody is interested in chasing 3 rogue soldiers all over the map at abondoned zones. So what took you and 100 of your buddies 2 hours of hard fighting takes them 3 men and 10 minutes. Wheres the metagame in that? where's the feeling of a lasting victory? However dispite its glaring flaws, PS2 is still a very enjoyable game if played simply as a FPS. If you're looking for any kind of grand strategy you will only get frustrated and disappointed
Hopefully SOE will change that and fast, because people like me are simply starting to lose interest in the same grind.…Expand

Planetside 2 has the potential to be a great game marketed as a Freep2Play game there are a huge number of issues and if you really want every weapon you will have to shell out a whopping 400 USD for every weapon + subscription that costs you 15$ a month.
Air: huge pay2win advantage (People who pay real money get rocket pods and AA rockets which are both overpowered hard)The Game:

Planetside 2 has the potential to be a great game marketed as a Freep2Play game there are a huge number of issues and if you really want every weapon you will have to shell out a whopping 400 USD for every weapon + subscription that costs you 15$ a month.

Air: huge pay2win advantage (People who pay real money get rocket pods and AA rockets which are both overpowered hard)
Tanks: mild pay2win (Regular tanks are hugely competetive and pay2win is almost non existant here.)
Infantry: mild to high (Free2play guns are super effective but you do gain some advantages with paid guns)

All in all i won't be playing this for a long time because it's based on such a blatant model,I mean seriously 7$ for a gun.

The GamePlay: Planetside 2 has it's charm,it's a fun game I admit but there's a big number of glitches,none of the game-breaking just annoying at times.The class system is well thought out and the upgrades are reasonable.The maps are huge and it's fairly balanced with some discrepancies here and there.

Conclusion:

All in all a descent game 7/10 but with the pay2win model it's really not the game for the intermediate-hardcore gamer this is a game for 9-5 person who has 2-3 hours to play and a lot of spare cash (kids,job people)
As a hardcore gamer I can say this is not a game for me,but I recommend you to try it and if you have an extra 400$ over a year to really enjoy it. I prefer my games in the 50$ area.…Expand

(This review is from 2012. Metacritic changed the date when I fixed some errors in my review)

The best part about about PS2 is the epic scale of combined arms warfare. It still takes my breath away to watch dozens of tanks exchanging fire in the field while aircraft and bombers blaze in the sky above and hundreds of infantry blasting each other in a beautiful persistent world ALL AT(This review is from 2012. Metacritic changed the date when I fixed some errors in my review)

The best part about about PS2 is the epic scale of combined arms warfare. It still takes my breath away to watch dozens of tanks exchanging fire in the field while aircraft and bombers blaze in the sky above and hundreds of infantry blasting each other in a beautiful persistent world ALL AT THE SAME TIME. You just can't get that with any other game out there today.

POSITIVE: It's free to play. The developers are actually talking to the players and changing the game based on player suggestions which is very rare these days. Just a few days ago a patch got released which added lots of new content that players were asking for.

NEGATIVE: Having played through the whole beta, I was very disappointed that a lot bugs and faction balance issues are still not fixed in the live version. A lot of continents and weapons from the original Planetside 1 didn't make it to launch. However, it's free to play so I don't have to waste money until they fix the problems . You also will need a decent PC to play the game until performance optimization will be adjusted in future patches.

I was going to give PS2 a 9 score but the game got released way too early for obvious SOE $$$ reasons so I bumped the score down to 7. I'm confident that the game will only get better over time.…Expand

Never played a first person shooter to this extent, with team work that comes into play, which makes this great. A lot of different ways to play the game, but its not as fun if your not in an outfit or team with friends. IT IS VERY DEMANDING, in terms of the amount of time it takes to earn enough points to get a new gear, but keep in mind its possible and unlockable, except for cosmeticsNever played a first person shooter to this extent, with team work that comes into play, which makes this great. A lot of different ways to play the game, but its not as fun if your not in an outfit or team with friends. IT IS VERY DEMANDING, in terms of the amount of time it takes to earn enough points to get a new gear, but keep in mind its possible and unlockable, except for cosmetics which you need to pay. I've played MANY hours then i did with any game. ONLY negatives i like to bring out is that the game feels like a BETA, still a lot of bugs and aren't managed well. Playing this game on high or ultra graphics look outstanding with the amount of players this game holds though. Just keep in mind, MOST of the people complaining are the ones that refuse to pay a dime. Although i do agree if you dont have much time, then it can perhaps get frustrating not having what others already have. Overall though, very great game, just give it sometime, afterall its free.…Expand

- Pay to Win
- Endless Grinding for Cert. Points
- Takes up a butt-load of Disk Space and Processing Power
- Minorly infested with Speedhackers and Aimbots
As a new player, the only thing you can do is merely run towards an enemy, kill him if you are lucky, and then die. You rinse and repeat through this process because you mainly can't even see who is friend and who is foe that- Pay to Win
- Endless Grinding for Cert. Points
- Takes up a butt-load of Disk Space and Processing Power
- Minorly infested with Speedhackers and Aimbots

As a new player, the only thing you can do is merely run towards an enemy, kill him if you are lucky, and then die. You rinse and repeat through this process because you mainly can't even see who is friend and who is foe that early into the game. You die yourself through the game.
Pick a Sniper - you take like 10 shots to kill somebody, while some enemy Sniper just takes one shot to kill you.
Pick Light Assault - Enemy's Machine Gun is always better and you die like in 2 shots.
Pick Heavy Assault - Fire a Rocket right next to the Enemy, no damage. Enemy's Rockets are like Atomic Nukes.

Most negative part about the game is of course, IT IS PAY TO WIN.
All the guns you can get for Cert. Points? Yeah, you can buy them with Cash.

Planetside 2 is a horrible garbage game that has no intention of ever improving and is just merely a cash-cow for Sony.…Expand

While the gameplay, graphics and sound are actually quite good, the game is just not suited for any true PvP player because of it's Pay2Win payment model. This may not stand out as much because of the frequent big battles in which the individual player doesn't have a big impact on, but it's still there.

PS2 has it's good moments when playing with several other people over voice comm,While the gameplay, graphics and sound are actually quite good, the game is just not suited for any true PvP player because of it's Pay2Win payment model. This may not stand out as much because of the frequent big battles in which the individual player doesn't have a big impact on, but it's still there.

PS2 has it's good moments when playing with several other people over voice comm, but that's just not enough for me when I want to play against other people on an equal footing.…Expand

Awesome looking game, the closest to war you can get on PC. It's amazing to spawn into a fully functioning airbase where there are fighters reloading and air transports loading up troops. The demanding graphics makes sure that the game looks like crap for any setting below high. Gunplay was solid. However game progress is going to be slow if you are not aiming to spend money, if you areAwesome looking game, the closest to war you can get on PC. It's amazing to spawn into a fully functioning airbase where there are fighters reloading and air transports loading up troops. The demanding graphics makes sure that the game looks like crap for any setting below high. Gunplay was solid. However game progress is going to be slow if you are not aiming to spend money, if you are aiming to get for example missle pods on aircraft be prepared to grind.…Expand

I've been having a lot of fun in Planetside 2. There is no other shooter of this scope on the market. With vehicles, weapons, and terrain galore, this game truly feels like war. 2000 players on a giant single continent fighting each other with tanks, planes, bombers, etc, etc? Cmon, have you seen anything more awesome? There are so many things to do! My favorites are flying a fighter jet,I've been having a lot of fun in Planetside 2. There is no other shooter of this scope on the market. With vehicles, weapons, and terrain galore, this game truly feels like war. 2000 players on a giant single continent fighting each other with tanks, planes, bombers, etc, etc? Cmon, have you seen anything more awesome? There are so many things to do! My favorites are flying a fighter jet, flanking enemy platoons with a dune buggy, and raking up kills as an engineer. I find the game as enjoyable solo as when playing in a squad. If you get bored of one playstyle, there's a plethora of other options to try.

That said, the game isn't perfect. While SOE is doing a great job (in my opinion) of ironing out bugs (compare the game at launch and now!) and adding new content (the Harasser FAV just came out, the lattice system is coming out with the next update), there are balance issues, occasional server-side lag, and numerous small quirks that need to be addressed. But I am happy to know that the developers are on top of it. Future content is also very exciting.

Oh, and the game is free to play. It's a AAA title with high production values and you don't have to drop a penny into it if you don't want to (there are various things that can be purchased with money, such as XP boosts and cosmetics to make your character stand out, but that's entirely optional). There's absolutely no excuse why you shouldn't give PS2 a try!…Expand

this game is the Best f2p online game ever its free to play and isn't really pay2win and has a lot of vechiles and weapons witch has a lot of attachments and with awsome events updates is this the best f2p online game ever

Planetside 2 is a game that would obviously get ALOT of hate. Its not made for everyone and thats easy to see after about 10 hours of gameplay.

Like games such as Team Fortress 2, Natural Selection 2 and Mount & Blade: Warband, the first few hours of Planetside are incredibly hard and frustrating due to the highly experienced community. The way the games works is also very hard to getPlanetside 2 is a game that would obviously get ALOT of hate. Its not made for everyone and thats easy to see after about 10 hours of gameplay.

Like games such as Team Fortress 2, Natural Selection 2 and Mount & Blade: Warband, the first few hours of Planetside are incredibly hard and frustrating due to the highly experienced community. The way the games works is also very hard to get used to. If you aren't enjoying the game after about 8-10 hours then you might as well stop playing, if not then you will most likely be having an amazing time.

The graphics, controls, mechanics, and pretty much everything in this is outstanding. The only negative thing I have against the game is the fact that you will have to spare about 30 mintues to about an hour to play a decent game and, unless you have a friend to play with, it gets pretty boring after a while.

Its fun and you might as well download the free-to-play title, as you may enojy it very much.…Expand

Everything that's wrong with Planetside 2:
It's made purely to attract players by showing off max settings graphics during mass battles at night.
What it doesn't tell you:
-it's designed with a softened up pay-to-win system which means paying or not - all have access to the same gear but not paying takes a multitude of time amount required to unlock and upgrade the same gear comparedEverything that's wrong with Planetside 2:
It's made purely to attract players by showing off max settings graphics during mass battles at night.

What it doesn't tell you:
-it's designed with a softened up pay-to-win system which means paying or not - all have access to the same gear but not paying takes a multitude of time amount required to unlock and upgrade the same gear compared to one who pays
-this doesn't just affect weapons, it also affects defense and equipment - you serioursly have to unlock and upgrade your armor, too; also heavy soldier shield or medic heal etc.
-you're USELESS and a soldier for the MEAT GRINDER with your lack of gear at the start, examples: You'll need a lock-on launcher to be able to destroy non-retarded aircraft, C4 is immensely helpful at destroying tanks, so are anti tank mines etc.; Also you'll seriously have to unlock and upgrade the same type of armor for all of the infantry classes individually per class even though they're all exactly the same and working the same just for the sake of taking long and many points; the only class shared item in the game is the medkit for some reason. Other than that you'll constantly have to repeat the same unlocks and upgrades per class, for vehicles / aircraft even per turrert slot.
-The game is designed as a point farming simulator to unlock and upgrade stuff and thus is a player farming simulator, not the future shooter that it first advertises itself as. This shows in two critical areas:
1) Story: There is none. After the initial basic training no story mission(s) exists, no text, not even a single line hinting to any context about the current conflict. Nothing. No one bothered to that day to add any story within the game for any faction and that shows what kind of people work on that game: People who don't care...
2) Futuristic: So you might expect future gameplay but that doesn't exists. There are exactly 3 things futuristic in this game: shields, real stealth and one faction's hover tank. Everything else is of a worse equipment standard than the current time military, especially rocket launchers which are a **** joke only because the devs didn't bother putting any actual tactics and gameplay into the game.
-Combat: Except for area effect damage, the Phoenix rocket launcher and some ballistic weapons it's all about line of sight = line of fire. The game has no artillery, no interesting gameplay mechanics as they could've been recycled from any strategy game and even lacks things of other fps titles.
-Infantry classes: The classes all just got one special ability and sometimes 1-2 additional items aka are not diverse enough. Medics are an utter failure by design as it's faster to resurrect a dead person from 0% to 100% than to heal an injured one from 1% to 100% and also the correct aiming is almost impossible if multiple players stand in another or very close because none of the devs ever bothered to auto-select the lowest health target in pointed direction instead of a full health that's in the way. Other design flaws exist for other classes. Classes have been given generic items to equip mostly instead of largely class specific gear that really alters their gameplay.
-Vehicles / Aircraft: The ESFs (Empipre Specific Fighter) need to be pointed out as special. They're a mix of jet and helicopter and can hover in place as well as fly forward or dash sidewards. They're unique to the game, odd to control, vulnerable and can be outfitted to be effective against everything. Aside from that most vehicles are boring by design. Mostly low potential and nothing but armor and blast damage, most don't need a crew to operate at full potential. See PS2 wiki for details.
-The problem with this game are the devs who believe it's best to keep the unlock + upgrade cancer system alive instead of trashing it to implement good gameplay mechanics, the devs who also don't care for story or don't get it that a future shooter should have future equipment and not just the topic slapped onto the game and all we get are mainly shields and one faction with pew-pew laser weapons; If the devs don't wake up and at least copy & paste some good stuff off other games PS2 is doomed ! It won't persists as the player farming simulator that it is. Hint: You can't always have mass battles you like to show so much as these are stalemates UNLESS you do it like Dota for examples does it: Auto generates waves of AI units directed towards the enemy main base(s); That'd work without player farming
-Planetside 2 uses clientside hit detection which means your PC tells their server when you hit who how, an invitation to aimbot hacking and players lagging like hell being able to shoot you dead long after you're actually already somewhere further away than on their laggy client - this whole thing doesn't promote the ideal of trying to have a good connection at times
-the game is poorly optimized, you'll most likely experience less fps than expected…Expand

Well well... it doesn't happen often that I change my opinion on some game so drastically, but I didn't expect this game to get so much better than before. I'd been playing this game in 2014 and it was quite crappy – lot of flaws and unbalanced as hell. I was looking for some FPS this year to play instead of battlefield series, that are getting worse and worse and I checked PS2 too. IWell well... it doesn't happen often that I change my opinion on some game so drastically, but I didn't expect this game to get so much better than before. I'd been playing this game in 2014 and it was quite crappy – lot of flaws and unbalanced as hell. I was looking for some FPS this year to play instead of battlefield series, that are getting worse and worse and I checked PS2 too. I decided to give it another go and what-the-hell! This game got much better – there are new gaming elements such as building bases and new weapons, the balance of the game got considerably better and lot of flaws has been removed/repaired. Definitely an improvement and kudos to the developers for listening to players, unlike lot of others. You have proven worthy of Vanu's legacy!…Expand

Really loved this game when it first came out. The persistent world, the graphics and I found it ran smoothly. However, it felt repetitive, without a sense of finale. The gunplay doesn't match up to other FPS I enjoy. Also not a huge fan of the credit of monetization model. I did purchase some weapons to give some support to the devs and for free or however much you want to pay the game isReally loved this game when it first came out. The persistent world, the graphics and I found it ran smoothly. However, it felt repetitive, without a sense of finale. The gunplay doesn't match up to other FPS I enjoy. Also not a huge fan of the credit of monetization model. I did purchase some weapons to give some support to the devs and for free or however much you want to pay the game is great value.…Expand

Promising game by SOE, maps are huge and battles have an epic feel to it (when during peak hrs). Graphics are beautiful but overall the game is marred by the following:
1) poor tutorial - after creating character game throws player into battle immediately without allowing them to even bind keys or figure out what to do.
2) bugs - flickering screen, falling thru the maps.
3) sloppy cheatPromising game by SOE, maps are huge and battles have an epic feel to it (when during peak hrs). Graphics are beautiful but overall the game is marred by the following:
1) poor tutorial - after creating character game throws player into battle immediately without allowing them to even bind keys or figure out what to do.
2) bugs - flickering screen, falling thru the maps.
3) sloppy cheat detection and policing by GMs - well-known aimbot hackers are able to keep playing to ruin the game even after being reported in game and outside of game via support tickets. 4) overpriced cash shop items - 7 USD for a gun that is single class only, single character. 5 USD for a weapon skin. To earn some essential weapons (like anti air missiles or rocket pods) normally in game, need over 50hrs of playtime on average.…Expand

Let's get straight to the point here. PS2 isn't even remotely close to a finished product. As things stand, it's effectively a large scale FPS sandbox in which the primary objective appears to be kill farming. Territorial control is currently borderline meaningless, resources (used to acquire vehicles and consumables) are sufficiently plentiful as to mean you're unlikely to run out, andLet's get straight to the point here. PS2 isn't even remotely close to a finished product. As things stand, it's effectively a large scale FPS sandbox in which the primary objective appears to be kill farming. Territorial control is currently borderline meaningless, resources (used to acquire vehicles and consumables) are sufficiently plentiful as to mean you're unlikely to run out, and the need to actually work as a team (as opposed to merely being in the same place as other players) is entirely non-existent. Chuck in the lack of any sort of sense of victory and defeat beyond one's own deaths and the overall feeling that comes along with PS2 is one of "why am I doing this?". So, why give it 5/10 and not a lower mark? Well, it's got potential, and in terms of development SOE have done the "hard bit", so with a bit of effort on SOE's part PS2 could turn into something decidedly compelling and unique over time.…Expand

Never played PlanetSide but heard wonderful things about it. Gave this a try while seeking something to replace Tribes Ascend. Needless to say the game did not live up to the hype. The gorgeous sprawling environments do not make up for a complete and utter lack of direction as it pertains to basic objectives within the game. Having logged a few hours I can say with reasonable certaintyNever played PlanetSide but heard wonderful things about it. Gave this a try while seeking something to replace Tribes Ascend. Needless to say the game did not live up to the hype. The gorgeous sprawling environments do not make up for a complete and utter lack of direction as it pertains to basic objectives within the game. Having logged a few hours I can say with reasonable certainty that I have no idea who is on what team, why they're all shooting at each other, or even if we are winning. Confusion of this level is only compounded by the terrible vehicle controls, counterintuitive interfaces at terminals, and frustrating lack of instruction regarding basic class advantages and disadvantages. I have no doubt that all of this will see its way into a future patch (should the game survive long enough) but one has to wonder why PlanetSide 2 was released at all as it is so obviously unfinished.…Expand

I read the first negative review I saw (from bi0mech81) and quite frankly everything the said has no bearing... Im sorry your terrible at playing a average difficulty FPS/MMO but the game cant help you there. Snipers are not a real problem, go heavy and thrown on a shield expose them and kill them. Tanks are what they are for power... they cost an ingame currency to buy to keep playersI read the first negative review I saw (from bi0mech81) and quite frankly everything the said has no bearing... Im sorry your terrible at playing a average difficulty FPS/MMO but the game cant help you there. Snipers are not a real problem, go heavy and thrown on a shield expose them and kill them. Tanks are what they are for power... they cost an ingame currency to buy to keep players from repeatedly spawning tanks to use. If you spawn in the middle of tank fight as a new person, SPAWN ELSEWHERE since it is actually impossible to have a spawn point ONLY in a battle as every team has a "safe zone" area so you cant be "pushed off" the map. This game is HUGE with thousands of players in a map, if a medic could heal a heavy and keep him alive under fire the game would be incredibly imbalanced. As a medic healing will ALWAYS get you xp if you sustain it to do the other player any good just flashing them a quick heal with your heal gun doesnt help them and hence wont reward you. When I started this game I did spawn into a battle and died a few times but quickly figured most things out. To start my game I went with a heavy player since they have a large clip and a shield to further increase tanking ability. The game is incredibly fun and open, the weapon/armor/vehicles can all be customized with different attachment etc to a depth even better than battlefield. There is a learning curve, it took me probably 3 hours or so to get all of the major gameplay aspects down and I would consider myself an average FPS guy, far from expert. Part of the beauty of a game like this is the sheer numbers required to make big differences in the game, sometimes in a large battle you will get killed with little you can do to prevent it (save hiding) just due to the number of crosshairs pointing back at your large group of soldiers assaulting a particular location. No single player of any skill level can capture a defended zone by himself because the game is so big everything significant will require a sustained effort from many individuals and that makes this game a hell of alot of fun in my opinion.…Expand

Game can be very fun , and there is nothing that has the scale and scope of battles like it does, but poor netcode and level design favors shotguns, making them very overpowered. Hope you like dying in one shot cause it's gonna happen, a lot.

I'm giving this game a 10 to counter balance all the scorers who have given it a 0 cause their machines suck. That being said in reality this game is a solid 8, it has its faults, and can be glitchy at times, but if you are an FPS fan you will get an experience in PS2 that no other game in this generation will be able to touch. It is also NOT pay to win, some the the upgrades in theI'm giving this game a 10 to counter balance all the scorers who have given it a 0 cause their machines suck. That being said in reality this game is a solid 8, it has its faults, and can be glitchy at times, but if you are an FPS fan you will get an experience in PS2 that no other game in this generation will be able to touch. It is also NOT pay to win, some the the upgrades in the planes may be a little OP or need a tune, but this isn't anywhere close to being pay to win, so Ignore those idiots as well. Plus how can you give a 0 to something that is FREAKING FREE!…Expand

This game has a great premise, but unless you wanna shell out money in the cash shop, you'll never get anywhere... I'm all for pay2play, but not pay2win. Plus, getting team killed by frustrated beginners or douchey vets its a pain in the ass; and don't even get me started on the lag... It's not horrible... but it feels like a game thats still in beta.

approach with caution.
Not a bad fps, but its got faults. Its very zergtastic, you wont often get into big battles, people just endlessly zerg undefended bases. And whilst there is supposedly pop control, there is no population balance on continents, meaning that each continent tends to eb dominated by one faction.
Air is stupidly overpowered, and ground based AA is pathetic. And certapproach with caution.
Not a bad fps, but its got faults. Its very zergtastic, you wont often get into big battles, people just endlessly zerg undefended bases. And whilst there is supposedly pop control, there is no population balance on continents, meaning that each continent tends to eb dominated by one faction.
Air is stupidly overpowered, and ground based AA is pathetic. And cert prices for weapons is very very steep. It is bordering on P2W.

However, if you can get a decent infantry battle going on in a Tech/amp/biolab or such, then this game shines. but endemic hacks is ruining it right now, speed hacks, wall hacks, aimbots....and no anti-hack program to stop it.

Couldbe a great game, but SOE need to get a handle on balance and hacks asap.…Expand

Excellent free 2 play game. Factions (and overall gameplay) are extremely well balanced . Skill always wins over $$. Graphics and performance are good. Epic scale. This is my favorite hardcore mp shooter on the market. Well worth learning how to play if you are up for a challenge.

I would like Planetside 2 alot but theres one problem the damn P2W (Pay 2 win) style of gameplay.

Many of you might say it's not a P2W game but in reality it is P2W game because they made collecting in-game money really slow and weapons costs way too lot that you can buy by in-game money.
Also i found that theres some huge balance problems that in some faction have lots of players andI would like Planetside 2 alot but theres one problem the damn P2W (Pay 2 win) style of gameplay.

Many of you might say it's not a P2W game but in reality it is P2W game because they made collecting in-game money really slow and weapons costs way too lot that you can buy by in-game money.
Also i found that theres some huge balance problems that in some faction have lots of players and other don't on server where you are playing.

About the P2W thing ithat those don't by weapons and items for real money it takes very long to get them unlike people that buys weapons and items for real money they can get really good stuff on low lever that helps alot.
For example, if there 2 players on 1 VS 1 and both low level players on same class, the other guy have the basic weapons and items that you can get from start of the game and other guy buys weapons and items for real money from start, the guy that buys weapons and items for real money owns the guy that don't buy weapons and items for real money unlike the other guy with starting weapons and items don't have any chance to kill that guy.
So it force you buy weapons and items for real money to win 1 VS 1 fights other then that you need always have 1-3 teammates with you even fights turn out be 2-4 vs 1.

But there was something good about this game and that was 2000 players each server, really big maps, really good looking graphics for F2P game, Controlls are almost perfect.

Also not forget that sometimes the server balance is so bad you end up fighting like 20 enemys at same time own base where is only 2-5 own team mates and sometimes you and up fighting all 20 enemys alone.

After i found Planetside 2 be alot pay 2 win style of game then i just stoped playing it and not waste of my time for collecting in-game money that you can collets very long time for single weapon.…Expand

COMPACT REVIEW FOR TLDR: Planetside 2 will not run on 'standard' systems easily. Planetside 2 is everything that it said it is (FPS,MMO,RPG,Free Roam,Very Customizable,Huge Battles). It is free so try it, and don't downgrade it because your system is not up to date. It is made to play with groups of buddies, but fun either way. The Graphics are awesome. The game is not played for story. ItCOMPACT REVIEW FOR TLDR: Planetside 2 will not run on 'standard' systems easily. Planetside 2 is everything that it said it is (FPS,MMO,RPG,Free Roam,Very Customizable,Huge Battles). It is free so try it, and don't downgrade it because your system is not up to date. It is made to play with groups of buddies, but fun either way. The Graphics are awesome. The game is not played for story. It is 100% pvp. There are tanks, apcs, atv, and futuristic aircraft you can fly + more. SOE is not amazing, but these devs are funny and put time into what they do. I have only given 3 or so games a 9/10 in my life, this game is one of them.…Expand

Having seen many negative reviews I was expecting a very flawed game. But on the contrary, I found Planetsi
de 2 to be a very enjoyable game. And its free!
I found the gun mechanics of the game very nice. The scale of it is amazing, specially when there are enough people in the server and 2 "zergs" clash. If that doesnt happen you might be facing boring moments, but these are avoidableHaving seen many negative reviews I was expecting a very flawed game. But on the contrary, I found Planetsi
de 2 to be a very enjoyable game. And its free!
I found the gun mechanics of the game very nice. The scale of it is amazing, specially when there are enough people in the server and 2 "zergs" clash. If that doesnt happen you might be facing boring moments, but these are avoidable most of the time. And seeing those huge battles is amazing. When I started the game I decided to play as medic to learn the game. I was expecting to get a crappy default gun and not being able to kill anyone. Not at all! Default gun (TR) was great. I found out the infantry gameplay very balanced. The things you purchase with Cert points (gained through experience) dont make such a huge difference, they are very cheap upgrades at first and there are plenty of ways to get constant (yet slow) stream of experience doing many different actions, not just plain killing. You get nearly the same ammount of exp for reviving a teammate as for killing someone. Who kills who in infantry gameplay is generally determined by a mixture of tactics and luck. Want some kills? Flank the enemy And if theres enough people in the server and you know the basics you can get to the frontline with no waiting time since there is generally always a mobile span point placed that will get you right into action.

Now for the cons. First of all the game definetely lacks a tutorial. You can spend a lot of time reading beginners guides in the internet before you start and still you will be completely clueless for a couple of hours until you learn the basics.
The optimization is horrible. But hey once I set the graphics to look like a game from a decade ago the game runs with perfect fps even in huge battles so thats great. I dont really care about graphics so much anyway as long as the fps is nice.
Strategical and teamplay is not encouraged and unless you are in an outfit it is generally nonexistent. This is generally mitigated by the fact that there are so many people but not that much. So generally fighting will be a mass of people behaving like cattle. So try to find a friend or join an outfit or otherwise you will be very dissappointed with your teamamtes. And resources are so abundant that no one really cares what gets captured or not.
One of the things that I liked most about this game was that it was free and to my surprise there was not a huge advantage to people that payed real money ... in infantry combat. People who pay get great advantages when using tanks or aircraft. You can see aircraft completely wiping out masses of infantry or vehicles while these cant do much against them. I just hope the developers now dont leave things as they are and strive to balance the game and encourage teamplay. If they do it could get to be a great game. But the game right now is very enjoyable for most of the time.…Expand

This is a pay to win game so it is more relevant to comment on the business model because pay to win games are just that and nothing more.

It's almost unreal but then cheating in games has been around for like forever now you just buy the cheats from the source itself; the developers.
This is how simple is really is by the way; Weak wheals will pay big bucks to win! Whoa simplyThis is a pay to win game so it is more relevant to comment on the business model because pay to win games are just that and nothing more.

It's almost unreal but then cheating in games has been around for like forever now you just buy the cheats from the source itself; the developers.
This is how simple is really is by the way; Weak wheals will pay big bucks to win! Whoa simply brilliant!

What makes this business model tasteless tho is that they encourage cheating in games played with other people as a cool thing all while denying that they are in fact selling cheats; anyone making money on this model will jump through hoops telling you that you are not buying the win; this is of course annoying as any fairly sensible person that's not completely self-deluded will just by the use of there own common sense know better.

It's a decent shooter. Has a sense of Battlefield 3 injected with armored steroids with it. The factions are somewhat balanced: I played all three factions during the beta and kept a stable K:D for all of them. The New Conglomerate guns do a little bit of work though. Large scale battles allow you to choose from multiple sites to play from, and you have a variety of vehicles to fightIt's a decent shooter. Has a sense of Battlefield 3 injected with armored steroids with it. The factions are somewhat balanced: I played all three factions during the beta and kept a stable K:D for all of them. The New Conglomerate guns do a little bit of work though. Large scale battles allow you to choose from multiple sites to play from, and you have a variety of vehicles to fight with, if that's what you prefer. There are three major problems in my opinion: 1) It's not player friendly. There is no handson tutorial that shows you what to really do. You are literally dropped onto the middle of the battlefield hoping you know what to do and who's who. 2) The cert grind (which allows you to unlock new weapons) is a big grind. An average player can get around 50-80 certs per hour if they're in active battlefields, but you need to play a few of those hours to unlock one weapon. You also have the opportunity cost of saving those certs and just buying Station Cash, each weapon costing $3-$7. That's not a bad price compared to other games where perm weapons are $25+, but this is per character only so caveat. 3) The biggest problem of them all: THE STABILITY. There are times where your whole screen flashes rapidly, risking problems prone to seizure. The stability of the servers during peak hours are horrible. Players will jump around and phase in and out, making it almost impossible to actually hit them. There have been reports on some large servers that grenades, vehicles, and explosives dont actually explode. Abilities won't work. Granted, this game just came out and it's been pretty popular so far, but it really needs some work on the stability side. Outposts are currently being worked on to have a more defensive fortress type layout instead of "whack-a-mole" location system, so that's another plus.…Expand

Planetside 2 is truly a groundbreaking idea - however the current state of the game could be better described as open beta rather than a final release. Although the game is extremely fun in the odd chance it is running without problems you will often find yourself frustrated with extremely buggy gameplay, a horrid framerate, and unstable servers. You will find your jet packs not working,Planetside 2 is truly a groundbreaking idea - however the current state of the game could be better described as open beta rather than a final release. Although the game is extremely fun in the odd chance it is running without problems you will often find yourself frustrated with extremely buggy gameplay, a horrid framerate, and unstable servers. You will find your jet packs not working, or you will find yourself dying from taking an innocent boost to a landing pad, or nobody will be moving and you will get shot through walls due to lag and extrapolation, or you will find tanks floating in mid air, or your VOIP won't work like it does not work for a big population of players, or you will find your current generation super computer can't pull more than 20fps in big battles. With all these problems this game does not deserve a positive score, no matter how much I would like to give it one.

I will revisit this review in two months by when hopefully this game will leave the open beta stage.…Expand

PS2 get tops marks for innovation, something that is rare in today's market. They also get pretty good marks for execution. This is war on a grand scale. It's hard to pick faults. The game itself is free. Despite what some people say it doesn't feel like a play to win model. Yes the certs (ingame reward currency) take a long time to accumulate to unlock items but apart from guns, there isPS2 get tops marks for innovation, something that is rare in today's market. They also get pretty good marks for execution. This is war on a grand scale. It's hard to pick faults. The game itself is free. Despite what some people say it doesn't feel like a play to win model. Yes the certs (ingame reward currency) take a long time to accumulate to unlock items but apart from guns, there is not actually that much that can be bought to make a real difference on the battlefield and nothing that you couldn't eventually unlock with certs anyway.

For a game that has just launched the balance feels excellent (apart from rocket pods decimating infantry too easily *shakes fist*). I've seen the odd aim botter but when you spot them it's very obvious and you can /report them.

This game really shines when you find a good squad, with a leader who is setting objectives and even some voice communication and coordination going. There is nothing like a few squads supported by air and amour assets rolling into a bio lab to crush the opposition.

The scale of the game and the sheer excitement of being in an epic battle will have you smiling ear to ear. Fantastic game, great graphics and well balanced. Way more fun if you are playing with friends though and my only gripe is that I played it about 15-20 hours and felt a bit burnt out after and have yet to go back to it. Its F2P though so it honestly deserves a chance from everyoneThe scale of the game and the sheer excitement of being in an epic battle will have you smiling ear to ear. Fantastic game, great graphics and well balanced. Way more fun if you are playing with friends though and my only gripe is that I played it about 15-20 hours and felt a bit burnt out after and have yet to go back to it. Its F2P though so it honestly deserves a chance from everyone who enjoys shooters.…Expand

If you have someone to play this with or a group of people than its one of the most enjoyable games, however if your caught alone game-play gets a bit repetitive. On a side note there's no real tutorial or way to learn the game, unless you have a friend that plays it. It basically forces you to use vehicles outside the bases because of all the tanks that normally roam around.

This game, Planetside 2 is hands down the best free to play game I have ever played. It is an amazingly huge game with astonishingly large landmasses and varied lands and environments to wage all out intense, thrilling, and immersing war in. You can play as one of three factions all with their own quirks. The game play has a lot of depth, and it may take a while to get used to. You canThis game, Planetside 2 is hands down the best free to play game I have ever played. It is an amazingly huge game with astonishingly large landmasses and varied lands and environments to wage all out intense, thrilling, and immersing war in. You can play as one of three factions all with their own quirks. The game play has a lot of depth, and it may take a while to get used to. You can take control of many different kinds of vehicles. From light and agile air crafts to strong and bulky tanks. There are three continents you will wage war over, with a total of two thousand soldiers on a server. There are no matches or loading screens, how power fluctuates is dependent on how well your team fights. Oh, did I mention the graphics for this game are simply amazing? If you're skeptical, you should just download and try this gem. It is free to play so you have nothing to lose. Beware of the learning curve though. The game takes getting used to, so I suggest looking up some tutorials on Youtube.…Expand

Complete turn off for new users in it's current state. I'm not a fan of lame tutorials, but the very minimum one needs for a new game is to check the controls and get some orientation. Every time I spawned and tried to do anything meaningful, I was killed by assorted heavy machinery within seconds. It also felt pretty random compared to PS1 HE fire from all directions don't leave theComplete turn off for new users in it's current state. I'm not a fan of lame tutorials, but the very minimum one needs for a new game is to check the controls and get some orientation. Every time I spawned and tried to do anything meaningful, I was killed by assorted heavy machinery within seconds. It also felt pretty random compared to PS1 HE fire from all directions don't leave the grunt many choices, especially not one whose experience spans seconds.

Getting rid of certs and allowing instant class switching almost makes it seem like PS2 was intended to be more of an Unreal Tournament than the strategic shooter the first game was.

This game wow, 9/10. Always have an absolute blast when I play this game. Game is admiringly beautiful and freakin' huge. Only thing I don't like about this game is the progression speed, takes way to long to unlock a new weapon, not only that but none of your gun progression can be used in other classes which kind of sucks. There is a payment option to quicken that or buy other stuff likeThis game wow, 9/10. Always have an absolute blast when I play this game. Game is admiringly beautiful and freakin' huge. Only thing I don't like about this game is the progression speed, takes way to long to unlock a new weapon, not only that but none of your gun progression can be used in other classes which kind of sucks. There is a payment option to quicken that or buy other stuff like armour. But this game isn't a pay to win. All guns and classes are perfectly balanced. Nothing is OP in this game, if there is, thank god I wasn't abused by it. Overall, great game, it's free so why not …Expand

I sincerely hope this game is a joke. The lack of balance here is ridiculous, and the free to play model here is so pay-to-win that it's fairly impossible to win without a significant amount of players who have payed for the game. In fact, it's difficult to win without a decent amount of people on your team at all. The game is a total steamroll, and a luck based one at that, for the amountI sincerely hope this game is a joke. The lack of balance here is ridiculous, and the free to play model here is so pay-to-win that it's fairly impossible to win without a significant amount of players who have payed for the game. In fact, it's difficult to win without a decent amount of people on your team at all. The game is a total steamroll, and a luck based one at that, for the amount of players on your team is totally random. The lack of killcam promotes camping, and there's no strategy required once you've found a corner to spam from. The entire game feels unfinished and soulless, only play this if you're a call of duty fan with no regard for well-crafted game design.…Expand

The original learning curve was a pain in the ass. But, now, because SOE has listened to the people who have the potential to give them money, they added links to tutorials right in the launcher. Honestly, the alerts are not all that fun. They turn the game from strategy to just masses of people in a tiny spot and COD.

Each update provides... problems with balance. If you want to haveThe original learning curve was a pain in the ass. But, now, because SOE has listened to the people who have the potential to give them money, they added links to tutorials right in the launcher. Honestly, the alerts are not all that fun. They turn the game from strategy to just masses of people in a tiny spot and COD.

Each update provides... problems with balance. If you want to have an easy time before getting in to the whole "shoot before getting shot" idea, go for a medic position, or an engineer driving a sunder/medium battle tank. You get certs like crazy from healing or repairing, and sunderer spawns get you a massive amount of experience, for parking a bus.

Also, an important fact is that each faction is suited to a certain type of play style. The NC is for people who like doing lots of damage, without using a lot of ammo. They require you to be fairly accurate, and account for bullet drop on the spot, or go CQC.

TR is mostly for COD players, where they move quickly, and spam bullets. After all, they have the fastest firing weapons in the game. Their real strength seems to lie within their airforce, as they are incredibly fast compared to any others, and dodge most small arms fire.

The Vanu have the best accuracy and very little bullet drop, if any. However, their weapons just don't do enough damage if you don't aim. Their weapons are best suited to medium range combat, where you don't need to worry so much about getting hit by the NC, and the TR are even less accurate.

I have problems with running this game on older computers, as I seem to get ~30 FPS on an ATI Radeon HD 5570, but it is still more than playable.

I honestly think there are so many scenarios, you should try the game out. The download time is worth it, I promise :)…Expand

This game is fantastic. In my opinion, it's better than EA's garbage child - BF4. I actually played this game awhile back. Back when it was in it's **** condition. You know, poor optimizations and stuff. I hopped into it again, and was surprised on how much the performance improved. Which is amazing! Now I can enjoy the game fully.

This game is Not Free to play its pay to win. Imagine the worst grinding game you have ever played x10
cost nearly 400 dollars to unlock all upgrades and guns would probably take a free player 10 years.

Planetside 2 has this huge disparity between people just starting out and those that have a lot of time put in. Unless you're spending really money, don't expect to be able to go head to head with anyone in the first couple months.

The gameplay is fun but the game has horrendous balance, most people in close up firefights end up going heavy more than half the time

Impossibly huge in scope and scale. I can't believe that it's a free game. The fact that it's an MMO astounds me. Nowhere do I see the slightest gameplay sacrifices because of it, even though the game can support literally thousands of players in a server. This game is a gameplay gem, and a technical masterpiece. There just isn't anything else like it.

NEW PLAYERS: There ARE tutorials on the game's website. They are terrifically helpful. Anyway, this game is certainly not for casual gamers. It is intense, complicated, and most importantly, requires strong teamwork skills. Also, a mic is practically a must. The graphics, while colorful, are very low res in the environment, though player models look decent., and the lighting is beautifulNEW PLAYERS: There ARE tutorials on the game's website. They are terrifically helpful. Anyway, this game is certainly not for casual gamers. It is intense, complicated, and most importantly, requires strong teamwork skills. Also, a mic is practically a must. The graphics, while colorful, are very low res in the environment, though player models look decent., and the lighting is beautiful at times. The controls are playable, though players seem to have a slower movement speed than in most FPSes out there. This is compensated by vehicular movement and combat, which can take place at blistering speeds, especially air combat. The most stand-out feature of this game is that it is first and foremost a strategy game played at the FPS level. While you can certainly run around aimlessly shooting bad guys, that behavior is very unlikely to aid in victory. I have been in 48-player platoons as the platoon leader, ordering squads around and reading the map while trying to determine the most tactically advantageous strategy for my platoon to take to secure its objective, and had a blast. Most people follow orders well; it is not like Call-of-Duty, where no one works together and mics stay silent. It is closer to Battlefield, but with way more consistency and no time limits or spawn limits - in other words, supremely tactical. It is not about how many kills you get, it's about whether or not you can successfully attack or defend a position against enemy forces. ******* For those concerned with the micro-transaction method: Of course people who put money into the game are going to have small advantages. The game is free to players, but it certainly was not to the developers. Games don't come out of thin air, and they have to make their money somewhere. I have no problem ponying up some dough to say thank you to the game studio, and neither should anyone else. Show some gratitude with your wallet. *******…Expand

Great mix of classes/vehicles.
Chop and change classes at any weapons terminal whenever you feel like it.
Encourages teamwork and also rewards it.
Very satisfying gameplay.
No play to win or pay to win. It's most down to skill and awareness.
Satisfying skill gains.
The bad:
Most fights are largely repetitive, although each is slightly different. Shame there's noThe good:

Great mix of classes/vehicles.
Chop and change classes at any weapons terminal whenever you feel like it.
Encourages teamwork and also rewards it.
Very satisfying gameplay.
No play to win or pay to win. It's most down to skill and awareness.
Satisfying skill gains.

The bad:

Most fights are largely repetitive, although each is slightly different. Shame there's no dynamic fights over a new resource etc.
Air-combat is dismal and poorly implemented
Initial skilling up can take a while before you feel that you've got some goodies to play with.
Stats are focused on kills, leaving many medics/engineers looking like idiots as revives etc aren't recorded.
Many players don't quite grasp the team play aspects of the game, then whinge about how it's not balanced. This isn't a single player game.

I'd improve by:

Adding dynamic resource events away from bases, since many open field fights are vastly more fun anyway.
Add joystick support to the game, it's hopelessly poor.
Add generous fuel requirements to aircraft rather than unlimited flying time.
improve in-game voice comms options, many outfits now use TS/mumble as they are vastly better.
Allow F2P players to get station cash somehow with an objective in game, even if it's limited/rare.

Conclusion: Make friends, shoot things win. Single players who don't want to work with others will find it frustrating.…Expand

I had low expectations for this game because it was free to play. First impressions were 'damn this is hard...'. There's a steep learning curve and no tutorial as such, just jump in and fight to survive. And I died a lot. My next reaction was the indoor environments are kinda bland, although outdoors it's quite picturesque. I reckon I need better graphics card than the GTX 260 SLI I haveI had low expectations for this game because it was free to play. First impressions were 'damn this is hard...'. There's a steep learning curve and no tutorial as such, just jump in and fight to survive. And I died a lot. My next reaction was the indoor environments are kinda bland, although outdoors it's quite picturesque. I reckon I need better graphics card than the GTX 260 SLI I have to enjoy this game. Another thing is that there is no engaging storyline that I've grown to expect from these sort of FPS games. You are just dropped into the action and left to deal with it. However where this game outstrips every other sort of FPS in terms of scale. The maps are huge and battles can involve 2 to 100 individual units, from infantry to heavy armour, to air all in the scene at once. This is a phenomenal technical achievement. Additionally the squad command facilities are better than those I've seen in previous games. As a result stories form organically, and battle scenes that would be scripted in a COD game, evolve in Planetside out of the natural process where a group of humans have to complete an objective, defined by their platoon leader, like defend a base or capture a point. There's massive potential here for more to explored in terms of player coordinated squad based gameplay and Planetside has barely scratched the surface but has given us a taste of what things could be like.…Expand

Gameplay wise the game is great. Sure there may be some balance issues especially concerning the infantry vs vehicles part, but in general it plays very nicely. Battles lasting through day and night cycles are something I've personally enjoyed the most. But there are some problems not related to the gameplay itself that prevent the game from being truly good. The first one is the last ofGameplay wise the game is great. Sure there may be some balance issues especially concerning the infantry vs vehicles part, but in general it plays very nicely. Battles lasting through day and night cycles are something I've personally enjoyed the most. But there are some problems not related to the gameplay itself that prevent the game from being truly good. The first one is the last of ANY tutorial, lack of ANY explanation of what all the icons means, lack of ANY objective information for the player which left me simply disoriented for first few hours. Sure, once you figure it out, the game becomes much better, but seriously I'm probably not the only one with this problem considering a very small subset of players who actually follows the objectives rather than mindlessly shoot each other. The second, and in my opinion - much more important - issue is the F2P model. The game was being advertised as not being Pay2Win game, which after a couple of hours becomes an obvious lie. Everything in game starting with abilities, weapons, mods, vehicle stuff, cosmetics, etc. is unlocked with a single currency you gain while playing the game. Now the problem is that on average you make about 25-30 credits per hour (about 1 credit per 4 kills) and upgrading a single perk to max level costs about 1500 credits - that's about 60 hours of gameplay for one perk on a single class on a single character. New weapon? No problem, 700-1000 credits + 200 credits for the mods. As you can see fully unlocking a single class takes about an eternity. This means that you end up buying weapons for 7-9$ each which is yet another misunderstood implementation of the MICROtransactions model. If this was a $60 priced title it would score at least 8 (because of the lack of initial tutorial and some game balance issues), but thanks to the greedy, falsely advertised payment model the rating does down to 3.…Expand

The PS2 isn't to bad for a F2P. Graphics are... ok could be better but whatever and they are doing pretty good with bug fixes. Big battles are pretty fun I have to say. I do hope they change a few things. Sometimes it just feels like you just zerg areas and why not they don't really reward you for defending a point. Why would you defend a point other than to just shoot enemies. Now if letsThe PS2 isn't to bad for a F2P. Graphics are... ok could be better but whatever and they are doing pretty good with bug fixes. Big battles are pretty fun I have to say. I do hope they change a few things. Sometimes it just feels like you just zerg areas and why not they don't really reward you for defending a point. Why would you defend a point other than to just shoot enemies. Now if lets say point A would give you the ability to spawn air craft (like the 1st PlanetSide) unlike now when you can do it from day one. I think maybe the battles would be more... meaningful? Or maybe just boasts like extra ammo or faster travel speeds? Also the constant Nerf to items (IE hill climb which I don't know if its broken or a Nerf to he honest) Yes I know it happens but they should refund cert if that do major changes like this. Maybe I'm just not a F2P kinda gamer. But for a F2P game it's a good time with friends.…Expand

There is a buy message on every screen where they want you to spend your money, there are guns for sale, voice packs for sale, camos for sale, decals for sale and all kinds of other useless crap for sale. There is also a membership for sale and this membership gives you discounts on items so that you can buy even more! Avoid this or chargeback everything you've spend on this game and buy aThere is a buy message on every screen where they want you to spend your money, there are guns for sale, voice packs for sale, camos for sale, decals for sale and all kinds of other useless crap for sale. There is also a membership for sale and this membership gives you discounts on items so that you can buy even more! Avoid this or chargeback everything you've spend on this game and buy a new game with the money.…Expand

So this game is addicting, but is definitely more fun with others. Although it is bugged and alot of times that gets you killed, it is still fun. They really need to fix a lot, when there are a TON of people playing you can barely get into the game if at all. Since the optimization patch, the performance of the game has been much better but there is way more to be desired such as weaponSo this game is addicting, but is definitely more fun with others. Although it is bugged and alot of times that gets you killed, it is still fun. They really need to fix a lot, when there are a TON of people playing you can barely get into the game if at all. Since the optimization patch, the performance of the game has been much better but there is way more to be desired such as weapon equilization and distance rendering. I find it utterly ridiculous that you can be shot out of the sky by aa that you cant even see. I know its free but the weapons and gear you buy is extremely overpriced. 7 dollars for pretty much every weapon is crap especially if it doesnt carry over to all you characters no matter the faction. (such as vehicle weapons that arent faction specific i.e halberd, m60, liberator weapons etc. I shouldnt have to pay 7 dollars for a weapon for every faction of character. There are plenty more upsides than downsides for sure but this game, as with any other, has many flaws. Overall it is definitely a game worth playing especially with a group of friends.…Expand

Personally so far with the game it is great. The game is rough around the edges but for what it is its very good. The first game sacrificed so much to have what it had and yet people say its better, the shooting was horrible. This game has fixed that, the devs listen to the community. And so many people also complain about technical difficulties, that's not really a game flaw. If youPersonally so far with the game it is great. The game is rough around the edges but for what it is its very good. The first game sacrificed so much to have what it had and yet people say its better, the shooting was horrible. This game has fixed that, the devs listen to the community. And so many people also complain about technical difficulties, that's not really a game flaw. If you actually searched for the problem you would find it is most likely the render distance option. The lack of in game tutorials is mostly solved by the fact that there are lots of people willing to help you, the game automatically puts you in a squad so you can just ask them. But is it really hard to point and shoot at the people in different colours? My experience with the game was great, seeing huge battles last for days and finally after lots of work taking that continent and then dropping over to another to fight there. I love the game, and for a free game it beats any others I know of.…Expand

New player experience is horrible in this game. No tutorial, no training grounds, nothing. You just spawn in the middle of a warzone having no idea what the objectives are or how to achieve them. While you try to figure out how the game works you keep getting killed over and over. Worst first impression ever. For me, this is indicative of an unfinished product. Uninstalled after 20New player experience is horrible in this game. No tutorial, no training grounds, nothing. You just spawn in the middle of a warzone having no idea what the objectives are or how to achieve them. While you try to figure out how the game works you keep getting killed over and over. Worst first impression ever. For me, this is indicative of an unfinished product. Uninstalled after 20 minutes. I'll check back when it's a complete game and not a torso.…Expand

Epic battles in an epic environment, with day and night cycle, feels like an MMO since there are no "rounds", its a persistent world in war. It gives you the choice to engage in big battles, small battles, or maybe camp in the nearby mountains sniping from a far? You choose. Best Battlefield I ever played.

One greatest MMOs out there. It makes you feel like an absolute badass when you roll out with an army of tanks and obliterate the bases. I also am deeply in love with the creators of this game, because they aren't money-sucking whores like most MMO creators. It's pretty simple to get the currency needed to buy stuff, this game is the only true free-to-play game around probably. But anyway,One greatest MMOs out there. It makes you feel like an absolute badass when you roll out with an army of tanks and obliterate the bases. I also am deeply in love with the creators of this game, because they aren't money-sucking whores like most MMO creators. It's pretty simple to get the currency needed to buy stuff, this game is the only true free-to-play game around probably. But anyway, this game is all-round really fun.…Expand

Planetside 2 is pretty dang good. Here are some pros and cons: PROS - 1) Huge maps with tons of bases, outposts, and facilities to capture. 2) Awesome graphics (I have a high end pc so I can't speak for everyone). 3) Combat on a HUGE scale. I've been in battles with 80+ players. 4) Constant tweaking, patches, and bug fixes. Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is constantly improving and fixingPlanetside 2 is pretty dang good. Here are some pros and cons: PROS - 1) Huge maps with tons of bases, outposts, and facilities to capture. 2) Awesome graphics (I have a high end pc so I can't speak for everyone). 3) Combat on a HUGE scale. I've been in battles with 80+ players. 4) Constant tweaking, patches, and bug fixes. Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) is constantly improving and fixing imbalances and glitches. And the developers actually listen to and engage with the Planetside 2 community. 5) It's free. The in game shop is only for aesthetic items (there aren't any hats, sorry) or to unlock weapons early, which you can unlock with certification points you get pretty easily in game - which means you never have to spend a cent to get the full experience. 6) The sound effects are awesome. It really feels like a battle. 7) Faction rivalries. Just a small part of the game and community but extremely entertaining. CONS - 1) There are some inbalances between factions, but nothing serious. 2) You will die. A lot. It's an online, first person shooter. There will be many players better than you or with better performing pc's than you. 3) Vehicles, especially aircraft, make mincemeat of infantry. It's hard when you first start out, but as you get more experience, learn how to fight against vehicles (if you're not in one) and learn to play better (and learn that dying only means a 5-10 second respawn) the game becomes much more fun. 4) You will die a lot. 5) It can be frustrating to play if you're not in an organized group like a squad or outfit. There are many squads and outfits out there. Go join one and see why. Way more fun to cooperate and get tactical. 6) You will die a lot. 7) The maps really are HUGE. It can take a while to get place to place unless you hitch a ride or drive yourself somewhere. 8) You will die a lot. Hopefully you're used to that by now. Don't let it bother you. You won't be an elite spec ops pro soldier on day one.

tl;dr

Get it. Play it. It's free. Don't get frustrated by dying a lot.…Expand

Oh. God. The. Bugs. 2/4 times I have played this the game glitches on respawn, the whole world becomes this half transparent mess were you can no longer see buildings or cover and requires a complete computer restart to fix. When the game does run it still has major problems. I managed to get enough cert points for the longest range sniper scope in the game. Turns out its completelyOh. God. The. Bugs. 2/4 times I have played this the game glitches on respawn, the whole world becomes this half transparent mess were you can no longer see buildings or cover and requires a complete computer restart to fix. When the game does run it still has major problems. I managed to get enough cert points for the longest range sniper scope in the game. Turns out its completely unusable because the world draw distance is shorter then distance the scope zooms to making the scope completely useless. Iv been in fights were I see our teammates dieing, I zoom in on my scope from the rear of the fight and see absolutely nothing. but when I move to the front of the fight suddenly an entire army appears. An army I should have easily been able to see from my elevated snipeing spot behind our lines. Iv played Alpha Builds that had less bugs then this "finished" game.…Expand

The shooter fundamentals are all there. The visuals are great but the progression just doesn't seem to deliver any payoff for players outside of the hardcore. It's not quite as much of a shameless cash grab as something out of Zynga, but it definitely sours the experience.

It might look overly complicated, but PlanetSide 2 is nothing more than your average class-based, objective-oriented competitive FPS. What makes it stand apart from other F2P games (aside from the huge servers, of course) is the co-operation factor with other players. [February 2013]